AMANDA BRETT WATERCOLOUR ARTIST
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​Paintbox Tips, secrets, thoughts, scribblings
and doodles on art, ​my life as an artist,
​travels and musings!! 

Finish every painting!! Paintbox Tip #8

23/1/2018

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When I go back to an unfinished painting I often have a wee panic.
​First of all, I don't want to work on this painting again - I'm over it and I've got a superb new idea and I just want to get going on that!
As a professional artist - my only source of income, this attitude is a BIG problem. Every creative moment, every piece of watercolour paper,  every brush load of paint is wasted if I don't finish. Time is money!!
To get myself back in the mode, I re-create my thumbnail sketches, review my reference images, notes and hopefully I'm on fire again!!
BUT, what if that fire doesn't return? When the buzz is gone, my smile fades and panic returns.
This is when I need to kick my artist's discipline into gear and make myself finish.
Here's my secret process for finishing every painting:
  1. I spend 5 minutes reviewing the artwork to-date and write a critique. what do i like? what do i not like? is my focal point/area speaking out loudly? if not what does it need for that happen?
  2. I also write a 'shopping list' of actions. I remind myself of my motivation and inspiration for this piece, my observations, inspiration, process ideas, thumbnails and design concepts.
  3. Then, I work through design principles to ensure I've covered enough bases to create an emotive, atmospheric painting.
    ie, 
    COLOUR does the colour create passage around the painting? can you label your dominant colour/value? the non-dominant colour/value and the accent colour/value? if not make it happen.
    VALUE I mentioned value above but to give you another example, are your darks dark enough? if not do you need to add a super dark? 
    EDGES is there a good variety of edges? hard, rough and soft? 
    SHAPES do your shapes need extra work? 
    SPACE is there are good balance of shapes and space? To repeat, a dominant shape, a non-dominant shape and an accent shape (aka big medium small)? 
    TEXTURE/DETAIL enough detail, too much detail? does it look finished?
  4. My FOCAL AREA might need some help to speak loudly? possibly less work in the background and more detail in the focal area.
​When all else fails, turn the timer on for 5 minutes!! giving yourself just 5 minutes will force adrenaline to flow and force you to make decisions without procrastination. It will force you to focus on the process and not worry about the next step, in other words, just do it!!
You've probably heard me say this before ... there is more learning value in finishing a painting than starting yet another painting you can't finish. A lot of it is in your initial preparation, the notes you make, the stories you tell yourself about your motivation and why you were originally inspired by the scene / concept.
It seems to me that, most often, a painting that is difficult to finish has been started prematurely. Remember, less planning = big problems; more planning means fewer and smaller problems to solve.

happy painting!!
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Painting Holiday Workshops in Italy

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very happy with the result so far, i stopped to let my students get stuck in. a little critique:
  1. man on right is too big
  2. I've got a left painting and a right painting - yikes!!
  3. very happy with my two gossipy guys on the left.
Picture
I made my man on the right smaller, added some more detail marks and a light value land mass across the river to join up the left and right sides. I also added more dots and dashes to indicate boat repair paraphernalia.​


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    Amanda Brett Watercolour Artist

    Paintbox Tips, secrets, thoughts, scribblings and doodles on art, my life as an artist, travels and musings!! www.amandabrett.net

    ​Copyright 2018 All images and text on Amanda's blog and website are the legal property of Amanda Brett and may not be reproduced without express permission, thanks for respecting my art and creativity.

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Amanda Brett - Watercolour Artist

Amanda Brett Watercolour Artist Painting Holiday Workshop Lucca Italy May 2019
Quality Guarantee: All my watercolours are painted with only modern professional grade watercolour paints on Museum exhibition grade watercolour papers, they are extremely lightfast and will become a family heirloom and passed down to subsequent generations. If​ properly cared for, watercolour paintings will last as long, if not longer, than oil paintings. I only paint on 100% cotton rag paper, mostly Arches and Fabriano, and frame to conservation standard with acid free materials.
Copyright © 2019 All images and text on Amanda's blog and website are the legal property of Amanda Brett and may not be reproduced without express permission from Amanda Brett or her authorised agent. Thank you for respecting her art and the livelihood of all artists.
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  • Home
  • Workshops & Classes
    • Workshops - Italy >
      • Book Watercolour Painting Workshop - Lucca Italy May 2020 >
        • Workshop payment - Lucca Italy May 2020
    • Watercolour Weekly Classes
    • Beginners One day Workshops
    • En Plein Air Painting workshops >
      • En Plein Air Painting workshops NZ
      • En Plein Air Painting workshops Sydney Australia
    • Painting Outside the Lines, Abstract Watermedia Workshop the Watershed
    • Painting Outside the Lines, Abstract Watermedia Workshop Vandy Massey
    • Feedback & Photos
  • About Me
    • More About Me & Watercolour >
      • What I See
  • Gallery
    • Latest
    • Lucca watercolour paintings
    • Art For Sale - en Plein Air (on location)
    • Art For Sale - Glamping & Kombis
    • Art For Sale - ICONIC New Zealand
    • Art For Sale - STILL LIFE
    • Studio
  • Paintbox Tips
  • Students Page
  • Contact
    • News
    • Watercolour Painting Workshop - Lucca Italy May 2020
  • Subscribe